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Abe Should End the War Over Yasukuni Shrine

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Every year around this time, in the
run-up to the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan’s surrender in 1945,
feverish speculation ensues about whether Japan’s top
politicians will visit the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo.
Chinese and South Koreans -- not to mention many Japanese --
abhor such visits because the shrine honors the souls of 14
Class A war criminals. Visitors say they have every right to
honor the 2.5 million other Japanese war dead celebrated at
Yasukuni; they compare the shrine to the U.S. war cemetery at
Arlington.

This is dangerous nonsense. Yasukuni is ground zero for an
unrepentant view of Japan’s wartime aggression. During World War
II, the shrine served as the “command headquarters” of State
Shinto, a religion that deified the emperor and mobilized
Japanese subjects to fight a holy war at his behest. The private
foundation that runs Yasukuni only added the 14 most
controversial “souls” -- surreptitiously -- in 1978.

The shrine’s political mission is on blatant display at the
adjacent Yushukan museum, run by the same foundation. There, the
Class A war criminals are portrayed as martyrs. Japan’s war in
China is supposed to have suppressed banditry and terrorism,
while its invasion of the rest of Asia is represented as a war
of liberation from Western colonialism. Missing from the
extensive exhibits are any mentions of the Rape of Nanjing, the
awful experiments conducted by Unit 731 on prisoners of war, or
the suffering endured by tens of thousands of “comfort women.”

Sly Reinterpretation

The museum presents a selective and sly reinterpretation of
Japan’s shared history with Asia -- one that is antithetical to
reconciliation, convinces few Japanese, and offends neighboring
nations that endured the brunt of Japan’s imperial aggression.

Politicians who insist that they are only paying tribute to
those who died for their country when they visit Yasukuni are
not telling the truth. If that’s all they wanted to do, they
could walk five minutes down the road to Chidorigafuchi National
Cemetery, which is, like Arlington, Japan’s officially
designated war cemetery.

It is telling that Emperor Showa (Hirohito), once the head
priest of State Shinto, confided to an aide that he stopped
visiting Yasukuni after 1978 precisely because the shrine had
been tainted by the presence of the Class A war criminals. This
explicit politicization of the site also explains why his son,
current Emperor Akihito, has maintained the imperial household’s
embargo on visits.

Though he has refused to confirm that he won’t visit
Yasukuni this week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to spend
Aug. 15 with the emperor. Abe aides have used this convenient
excuse to suggest that a visit to the shrine is highly unlikely:
Such a gesture would be a deliberate insult to the imperial
family.

Of course, Abe also knows firsthand that Yasukuni visits
are a diplomatic dead end. His mentor, former Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi, caused great damage to Japan’s regional
interests by repeatedly going to Yasukuni between 2001 and 2006.
Trying to repair relations with Beijing and Seoul, Abe himself
stayed away from the shrine during his first stint as prime
minister in 2006-2007.

He has said he regrets that decision. But he also knows
that his legacy will be determined by his ability to revive
Japan’s dormant economy -- a task that will not be made any
easier by alienating trade partners China and South Korea. Aside
from stumbling over a question about aggression in Parliament,
Abe has done himself and the nation a service by keeping history
-- not his best subject -- at arm’s length.

Political Points

Still, this ad-hoc strategy only keeps the controversy
alive. Will members of Abe’s Cabinet and his party show up at
Yasukuni on the 15th? Will Abe himself go during the Takayama
Matsuri Autumn Festival, or next year? What if a slew of
backbenchers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party turns up
at the shrine en masse? The damage to Japan’s reputation and
regional standing would likely be the same.

There have been sensible suggestions to dis-enshrine the 14
Class A war criminals. But Yasukuni’s head priest says this is
impossible; enshrinement is permanent.

Indeed, hosting those souls is a point of pride for the
shrine. Yasukuni is not about dignified homage; it is about
scoring political points and drawing attention to revisionist
history. The only thing that Japan’s modern reactionaries regret
about the war is defeat, and they are still fighting an uphill
battle against Japanese public opinion to justify wartime
Japan’s “noble mission.” No amount of sanitizing will change
that.

The only way to end the controversy is to impose a
moratorium on visits to Yasukuni by any serving Cabinet
minister. This idea was first promoted several years ago by
Ambassador Kazuhiko Togo, whose grandfather is one of the Class
A war criminals enshrined there. Officials should honor Japan’s
war dead at the official cemetery at Chidorigafuchi, not at a
privately run propaganda center.

Abe’s right-wing views on history are well-known; they
played a role in his abrupt and embarrassing fall from power in
2007. Intimates say that he is searching for redemption. What
better way than to end the controversy over Yasukuni once and
for all? The fact that he comes from the conservative camp would
give any moratorium he declares added force, making it harder
for any future prime minister to reverse the decision. If Abe is
truly looking for a new beginning -- for himself, and for
Japan’s relations with its neighbors -- that’s where he should
start.

(Jeffrey Kingston is the director of Asian Studies at
Temple University Japan)